Summer
by CloudedCreation
Summary: Sena has an aunt who owns a hotel. pre-slash


Taka Honjou/Sena Kobayakawa

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Summer

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None of them knew who the other was when they first met that cloudless day in the forest, just a few miles from where Sena was staying for the summer. The future running back was nine, and he had been sent to stay with his aunt who was the owner a local business for a month, and while he didn't exactly have any friends other than Mamori back home - even though she acted more like an extra mother rather than a friend – he was lonelier than normal during the hours his aunt worked.

There wasn't any other children around, the hotel popular most with couples aged fifty and over, so usually he'd just end up taking long walks on the trails riddling the remote mountain area while he waited. Waited for his aunt to put her work clothes in the washer, for his mom to call and see if everything was all right, for something to just _happen_.

It didn't, so Sena took walks.

It was on one of those walks, that he met Taka. He was sitting on the large rock that the stream curled around, a baseball being thrown up, higher than Sena could see with the sunlight in his eyes, only for it to be caught again by agile hands that oozed of confidence that he'd catch it without fail. Sena didn't have that kind of confidence, not in anything, so he couldn't help but be mesmerized as he continued watching for his position at the turn of the path.

The boy had heard him though, a snap of a twig and he was caught like a deer in headlights, eyes wide and he considered running away as the blonde turned his head around so fast that his hair flew out to the side like those commercials he'd seen of pretty women. As he took in the features of the other boy, Sena couldn't help but find him pretty too, but then he faced away from him again and proceeded to ignore him.

Sena hesitated, not sure what to do. On one hand, he was lonely, and utterly, unimaginably bored.

On the other the boy didn't seem to want company, and there was the underlying fear of him being one of those bullies that Sena always had the misfortune to meet. He did not want to be bullied on his vacation, thank you very much.

In the end, the desire for company won out and he cautiously walked forward until he was perched on the slightly smaller rock a few yards away from the other occupied one. He kept his head tilted slightly downwards, peeking up at the other boy from under both bangs and eyelashes.

The blonde seemed older than him and was at least a head taller, and Sena would perhaps have been jealous of that if he wasn't so used to being the smallest kid in class, even the girls reaching higher in the sky than him.

In the end, he spent the next several hours just sitting there, watching to other boy throw and catch a ball, before he noticed that the sun had begun to go down the horizon and that if he didn't go back soon his aunt would be worried and then she would call his mom and that would be _bad_. So, just as tightlipped as when he had approached, he quietly shuffled down the side of the ragged piece of stone, before he sprinted back down the trail leading toward the hotel, all the while feeling the other boy's eyes burn into his back.

Not a word had been exchanged between them that day, but when he was back at his aunt's, sitting with his legs dangling under the kitchen chair as he waited for her to finish dinner, he couldn't help but feel much less lonely than usual.

And so they continued for the rest of the summer, no words at all slowly evolving to single ones, to a sentence here and there, to lengthy conversations that were about everything and nothing at the same time. Whether it was conscious or not, none of them told the other their name, seeming to be alright with simple nicknames. At nine that didn't matter much, Sena never thought about it as strange, he was simply glad he finally had a _real_ friend that didn't try and mother and coddle him.

Then the summer was over, and he had to go back home, but when walked away from _their place_ for the last time that season, he found himself not wanting to leave. It had been like a sanctuary, a haven where none of what happened back in the real world mattered, where a kid who was normally bullied got to hang out with the popular one without anyone else having any say.

He quickly turned back around and ran over to the taller boy, throwing himself in the other's arms as a way of saying goodbye without words. The blonde started slightly, not prepared to be jumped at in such a fashion, but it didn't take long until he wrapped his arms around Sena in return, a slight smile on his face when they separated a few moments later.

Being used to the other boy not smiling much, Sena couldn't help but feel a little proud that he had managed to put it there, and it was with a slightly lighter heart, than he went back to the hotel to pack for his trip back home.

When his mother asked him the next year if he wanted to go back to his aunt this summer as well, he didn't hesitate to answer yes, hoping that the blonde would be there this time too.

He was.


End file.
